RS

MEMBER DIARY

Pakistan Flooding: A CIA Conspiracy?

Uh…no. But you might be forgiven for thinking that if you read the Pakistani blogs. That’s right, the Pakistan blogs are all going nuts (literally) over a new conspiracy theory that says the CIA intentionally caused the flooding that’s destroying their country.

You might wonder how the CIA supposedly caused this flooding. Blowing up a dam? No, too obvious. Opening floodgates? Still too obvious. Manufacturing a gigantic glacier and then melting it with sterno heat? You’re getting closer. Weather control machine? Bingo.

Although the U.S. has been leading flood relief efforts in Pakistan, where nearly 20 million people have been affected by the worst floods in 80 years, the Pakistani media continue to publish anti-U.S. conspiracy theories regarding the floods. On August 6, 2010, a Pakistani website released a report titled “Pakistan Flood: HAARP Used in Pakistan? – Urgent,” accusing the CIA and its alleged use of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), the Alaska-based U.S. Air Force program, to artificially cause the flooding.

The website, pakalertpress.com, was registered on May 4, 2009 and is one of a family of new websites which have been propagating anti-U.S. conspiracy theories in Pakistan in recent years. Further examples of such websites and blogs are pakistankakhudahafiz.com, ahmedqureshi.com and takmeel.pk. These websites are also involved in conspiracy theories against Israel and India, and the tone of their content is pro-Pakistani military and pro-militant organizations. Some of these websites identify themselves with Zaid Hamid, a Pakistani demagogue who advocates Islamic revolution in South Asia and beyond. A collage of images on the homepage of takmeel.com announces its plan to launch a radio station from the Indian capital, declaring: “Coming Soon – Radio Pakistan Delhi.”

The unidentified authors of the August 6 report, which has been subsequently republished by several other websites, observed: “We have investigated this matter and concluded that HAARP is being used in Pakistan [to cause artificial flooding]…” The pakalertpress.com published another report on August 18, titled “Is the CIA playing the HAARP in Pakistan?” – alleging indirectly that the U.S. military is using HAARP to cause flooding in Pakistan. It observed: “We are now seeing another phase of floods targeting Pakistan.” The report went on accuse HAARP researchers of experimenting with different types of weather weapons in recent years: 2005 – hurricanes; 2004 – tsunami; 2007 – floods; 2008 – tornadoes; 2009 – earthquakes.

Look, if the CIA could control the weather, I guarantee you it would not be so damn hot in Virginia right now.

This is a real problem. We’re all but dumping money out of helicopters onto Pakistan right now. Pakistan is a key alley in the GWOT, and their democratic government, while certainly imperfect, has proven to be willing to take on a big chunk of the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists. But these same terrorists seem to have a lock on the media – certainly online.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that a bunch of these websites reported by MEMRI are really Iranian or al Qaeda fronts running psyops campaigns against allied forces. The question I have is why Pakistan’s legitimate media (what there is of it) isn’t outing these guys and setting the record straight?